Webster sharper than Cole in matchup of top pitching prospects

PAWTUCKET — There will not be many games played at McCoy Stadium this season that will showcase more high-level talent and provide as much entertainment as did Sunday’s 11-3 Pawtucket triumph over Indianapolis.For...

Comment

By
PAUL KENYON
Posted May. 19, 2013 @ 10:00 pm

PAWTUCKET — There will not be many games played at McCoy Stadium this season that will showcase more high-level talent and provide as much entertainment as did Sunday’s 11-3 Pawtucket triumph over Indianapolis.

For those wanting to see big-time hurlers, the contest featured two of the top pitching prospects in the game in Pawtucket’s Allen Webster and Indy’s Gerrit Cole. For those looking for highlights, there were plenty of those, as well, with tons of strikeouts, heads-up defensive play by Pawtucket and even a display of speed by the home team.

It all added up to one of the best days yet for Pawtucket as it easily turned back the team with the best record in the International League.

The day’s big draw was the pitching matchup. Despite what the score might indicate, Webster and Cole did not disappoint. They both are big-leaguers in-waiting, and they lit up the McCoy radar gun with regular readings in the mid 90s. Webster topped out at 96, Cole at 98. Both showed tons of talent, but also a need for maturity.

“I thought he did a real good job, but there’s still room for improvement,” Pawtucket manager Gary DiSarcina said of Webster, who ran his record to 3-0 and lowered his earned-run average to 2.40.

Webster worked five-plus innings and allowed only one hit. But he struggled at times with his command as he walked five in five innings. The only hit he allowed was a double by Jared Goebert in the fourth. It scored a run because it came after Webster had walked two.

Webster retired the first 11 batters he faced. That included six straight strikeouts, beginning with the final out of the second inning.

Cole will not have good memories of the day. His line was awful. He went 52/3 innings and was charged with six hits, eight earned runs, walked three and struck out six. Cole is not going to have many days like that.

The 6-foot-4, 240-pounder has been compared to Justin Verlander, a guy with nasty stuff who loves to jam hitters, something he did several times against the PawSox. Cole is the top-ranked prospect in the Pittsburgh organization and the seventh-best prospect in the game according to Baseball America. He needed 103 pitches to get through the 52/3 innings. He walked three and struck out four. He nearly had really terrible memories of the day.

Jackie Bradley Jr. hit a line shot right back at him in the third, head-high. Cole got his glove on it as he bent his body backwards. The shot glanced off his glove to shortstop Josh Harrison, who threw Bradley out at first. Cole had allowed only one base runner to that point, but he was not the same pitcher after that.

Fleet of foot

Bradley showed off his speed in the fifth. He was on first with two-out walk. Justin Henry drilled a liner in the gap to left-center. Left-fielder Felix Pie got over in time to cut the ball off before it could roll too deeply. He had the ball before Bradley reached third base.

But the speedster easily beat the relay throw for his team’s fourth run of the game.

Brandon Snyder Jonathan Diaz Jeremy Hazelbaker

They had his back

Still another highlight for Pawtucket was the defense, especially in the fifth.

“The defense got me through that. That was basically their inning,” Webster said.

Webster was having control problems, with two walks. With Ivan DeJesus at the plate, Webster bounced in a breaking ball. Tony Sanchez, at second, took a step toward third. Catcher Alberto Rosario blocked the pitch and picked it up in the right-handed batter’s box. He gunned a throw to Jose Iglesias at second and got Sanchez by two feet. On the next pitch, DeJesus hit a wicked shot to third. Diaz speared it on a short-hop and started an around-the-horn double play.

“I’m struggling to find the zone, throw one they hit for a bullet and they turn two on it,” Webster noted. “You couldn’t ask for anything more.”

Will LittleDean Treanor

Jerry Sands Dave Soucy Jon Joquim

Martin shines

Chris Martin came on in relief of Webster and threw two scoreless innings. He now has worked 26 consecutive shutout innings to begin the season, 21 at Portland and five with Pawtucket.

By the end of the day, everyone in the Pawtucket lineup except Iglesias had a hit, six different players scored runs and six had at least one RBI.